Clinton says Wall Street protestors must organize for real change

[struggle4progress]

By Alex Keefe | Oct. 11, 2011

Former President Bill Clinton says anti-corporate protestors across the country need to organize if they want to make a real impact.

Mr. Clinton spoke at an event in Chicago Tuesday. People here and across the country have taken to the streets to protest corporations they say are responsible for the economic recession.

President Clinton compared the so-called "Occupy Wall Street" movement to the pro-democracy demonstrations that have swept the Middle East.

"They wanted to build a modern, inclusive state, including for the fundamentalist Islam - Muslims, who wanted to live in their own way. But they had a vision - they had no program and they had no organized political party," Clinton said. "That's the problem the Occupy Wall Street people have." ...

http://www.wbez.org/story/clinton-says-wall-street-protestors-must-organize-real-change-93054

[MichiganVote]

1. There are no organized political parties now.

[Amonester]

2. Does that include or exclude selling their souls to monsanto inc.?

Just asking...

[Whisp]

3. shuddup, Bill.

[Enrique]

4. Chelsea just got a $300,000 Wall Street job

just saying. :shrug:

[tblue]

20. Hanh?

He's a party faithful. He may be right, but this is a movement not a party. OWS is outside the box and living proof that the parties have failed.

[Beam Me Up]

23. Oh, that deserves to be a SIG LINE ^ ^ ^ Very quotable,

that last sentence is.

[Caretha]

39. And "they" know it

That's why they are sending in the "Big Dog".

[Ter]

29. 300k a year is poor compared to her parents

It's not even close to rich.

[Enrique]

32. that doesn't include bonuses

the bonuses are where the real money is. I agree, 300,000 is chump change in the world of the 1%

[babylonsister]

5. Seems the message is getting out anyway, Bill. Maybe someone

will run with it, and it won't be a rethug, and what are you suggesting anyway? A third party?

[Booster]

6. Then why doesn't he get his butt down there and organize them?

He does such a great job when it's a humanity aid thing. Well, Bill????

[vroomvroom]

7. Says Clinton who's closest friends work for Wall Street & Chelsea is making $300K/yr on Wall Street

[Lucky Luciano]

8. Chelsea is probably taking down more than $300K...

If not, then her career progression is slower than average - with her connections that is impossible.

[workinclasszero]

9. One thing to say....NAFTA

This is not your movement Bill but thanks for your concern.

[Demeter]

10. Third Way Bill Should Butt Out

He bears a measure of blame for this sorry state we are in.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. "Ricky Ray Rector Bill" should butt out. He's a despicable specimen

of the human race.

[Harmony Blue]

11. Organization is the worst thing to do

you become an easy target.

The OWS movement is powerful because it isn't so easy to predict, or thwart.

[FrenchieCat]

12. Perhaps signing the repeal of Glass-Steagall kind of moots Clinton's voice on this one....

No? :shrug:

[texastoast]

13. Say it, sister

One of the worst things that happened to America.

[girl_interrupted]

17. And oddly enough Obama has done nothing to reinstate Glass-Steagall

wonder why? Obama's credit card "reform" bill still allows usury to continue, another plus for the banks. And his Wall Street "reform"? yeah, well we can all see how devastating that was to the 1%...not.

As much as I like Bill Clinton, I'd like to see politicians left out of organizing anything for those in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They are doing very well on their own, and in time the message will become more defined. Finally it's nice to hear what real people, have to say, not politicians looking to jump on the bandwagon, because when you really come down to it...it's the politicians that got us into the mess we are in.

[tblue]

21. Yup. Totally.

This movement has captured our imagination precisely because it's not trying to be a well oiled machine working within party lines. It's truly grassroots. I adore it!

[FrenchieCat]

40. That's not the case....

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill did include a version of the "Volcker rule," named after Paul Volcker, who argued not for reinstating Glass-Steagall, but for enacting a kind of updated variation.

The final Volcker provisions (sections 619-621), which are weaker than his original proposal, will restrict banks' proprietary trading (dealing in securities and other financial instruments for the firm's own profit, rather than on behalf of customers), impose additional capital requirements on shadow banks engaged in proprietary trading, and restrict banks' ownership stakes in hedge funds and private equity funds. How effective these provisions will be at separating commercial banking from risky securities trading will largely depend on the specific rules that regulatory agencies write over the coming months to implement the restrictions, and how soon those agencies require compliance (the law allows for banks to request extensions for up to 12 years).
http://www.newrules.org/banking/rules/glasssteagall-act-and-volcker-rule

I know you wanted him to use his dictatorial powers to make it all better, i.e., clean up everyone elses mess, and to do with a congress where half of the votes are Blue dogs.....

But go ahead....at the rate that you're headed, you won't have to worry about Pres. OBama anymore. Won't that make you happy, you and Justice Ginsberg.

[great white snark]

26. Can't blame Clinton here, It's Obama's fault for not fixing another Clinton mistake.

At least that's what I read on the DU.

[Arctic Dave]

14. Says the guy that help fuck over working Americans as much as the repugs.

Bill, you can STFU on this one.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. They do seem to be organized?

If the unions like people to have jobs they can play a greater role?

[TheKentuckian]

18. By organized he likely means co-opted by the Turd Way and utterly blunted

folding the movement into the status quo and acting as a fig leaf for the corporate party he has always been mostly worked for, aka Republicans with different and more lofty rhetoric for Republican policies and aims and less open systemic bigotry.

[tularetom]

16. I guarantee you that Clinton doesn't realize this but

he is a big part of what they're protesting against.

[Safetykitten]

19. Clinton is sounding like a Vietnam Era politician that did not get it. And he does not.

[lunatica]

24. When you're a hammer everything in the world looks like a nail

To each his own reality.

[JoeyT]

25. Advice from Bill Clinton on economic justice movements is

like advice from George Bush on literacy programs. We're sure he means well, but he has no idea what the fuck he's talking about.

Bill can go piss up a rope.

Edited to add: Actually I'm not even sure he means well. Probably not.

[polichick]

27. If anyone is invested in our economic status quo it's Clinton...

Hell, his decisions helped to create it.

[randome]

34. So he's invested because he has money.

Got it.

Then when he is showing support for OWS, he is moving against his own interests. Which is the mark of someone who thinks.

[polichick]

35. Read more carefully - he "helped to create it."

[myrna minx]

28. So it can be hijacked by the "Third Way"? No thanks Bill. You and your NAFTA

pals choose not to get it.

[randome]

30. So the result...

...will be that no message will be sent. And none received. Without a unifying message, it looks like a party.

And why the hell are people chastizing Chelsea? For making money? I thought OWS was about fairness, not denigrating people for being successful.

[Enrique]

31. congratulations on your success, Chelsea

you're doing a fantastic job being the daughter of a president.

[randome]

33. Not sure what she can do to change that.

So I'm not sure what your point is.

[Whisp]

37. will she be starting to trickle down soon?

or was her wedding enough of a trickle for the great unwashed?

[randome]

38. I don't know. I don't know HER.

She probably doesn't care about you or me because she doesn't know us. What would satisfy you? That she give away most of her money to strangers or charities? How much does she get to keep? Where do you draw the line in deciding what's 'good' for her?

I'm all for raising taxes but I'm damned if I'm going to be angry at someone for succeeding.

And anyone who wants to support OWS, be it Bill Clinton or anyone else, I'm not going to tell them 'not wanted'.

I think our anger is better reserved for the GOP lawmakers.

[Ikonoklast]

36. Shut the fuck up, Bill, you are embarrassing yourself.

YOU HELPED PUT US HERE.


OWS doesn't need your advice on anything, they are doing just fine all on their own.

[Beacool]

41. Different day, same old crap around here.

I see that the CDS has been expanded now to attacking Chelsea.

:crazy:

Pathetic.........

x(